| The law regarding insulting foreign heads of states is an interesting one, as is the handling of it. That law explicitly (and untypically) states that the executive has to decide that the district attorney may press charges, which was granted in this case.
The law is stated as "the executive needs to authorise prosecution", but due to how it's structured (executive reigning in to a matter of court) it's really more of a veto. (http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stg... - section 104a is about the veto) Then there's the rule that when laws change, the sentence is capped at the "mildest" legal result for the defendant between opening the case and the final verdict (to paraphrase things _very_ roughly, details at https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/2.html, in english at http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stg...). So what could happen: 1. The executive (through Merkel) allowed the use of the law in this instance.
At the same time, there's consensus within the executive and most of the legislative that the law should be repealed. 2. The jurisprudence opens the case, it drags on for a year. (or they decide not to take on the case, in which case everything stops here) 3. There's a verdict. Boehmermann can appeal several times, dragging this on for another 4 years or so. 4. At some point the law gets repealed. 5. The next time a court hears the case, they'll kick it out because there's no law and therefore there can be no prosecution. An alternative reality might be: 1. The executive stopped prosecution under this law because they can. 2. We'd hear about how the German government stepped in on matters of jurisprudence every. single. time. that Germany complains about overreach and a lack of rule of law in Turkey (and probably elsewhere). A gift that keeps on giving. Then there's also the more general defamation law (applicable to everybody and with no executive veto clause). Due to where the TV station is headquartered, the case is handled in Mainz. For those defamation cases, the Mainz district attorney has a rule that a mandatory mediation meeting must happen in person in Mainz, with no exceptions. Not sure mediation is something Erdogan really wants to do for what is essentially a populist stunt. |